This portrait was based on a photo I took of Gems in Cucina Rusticana. It was afternoon and there was a thin sliver of sunlight that lighted the room. It fell on her face as she talked. When she was worrying about how things were. I took a pic and captured that moment. I never thought I’d be using it as basis for this experiment. Then again – I never thought I’d actually paint portraits.

I was actually looking for a photo of Gems’ dad before I thought of doing this photo. I also did the finishing touches in the dark. Why? Because I work in the dark with just the screen lighting the room. It helps me focus on my work.

So when the internet went down, I looked at this painting and decided to do the finishing touches – details. I was just surprised that when the paint dried – one eye was green and the other was blue. I still don’t know how that came about because I really remember painting it brown.